Saintless

I bought an electric lawn mower, the Grass Hog, yesterday. And today my older son, Drake, and I went to work on the backyard. This is about what it looked like before:

The before picture

Those giant sticky weeds you see were about 3 1/2 or 4 feet high by the time I got to it today. Most of the “lawn” was about waist high. I tackled it with the weedeater first, and then went over it with the lawnmower on mulch mode. I am thoroughly impressed with this lawnmower. Some of the stems of the weeds were thinker around than a half dollar coin, and the lawnmower ate right through them. I ended up letting Drake use the weedeater and the lawnmower. He was pretty thrilled about that, but he did wear out pretty quickly. As did I! My arms are shaky from all of the work!

I still have a long way to go before I have a decent backyard, but at least it’s tolerable, now:

After

In a couple of days, I’ll sprinkle Scott’s Turf Builder on it, and see if I can get rid of the weeds, and get grass to grow in the bare spots.

The front lawn looks fairly good, but I put Turf Builder on it today anyway. I also put a tomato plant in a pot on my front porch. Preston planted some flowers in small pots that are lining the steps of the front porch. I’m looking forward to planting more tomatoes after the Farmer’s Market opens and I can purchase some plants from there.

My neighbor, Ray, commented that I’m doing a lot of work for this just being a rental. But, I don’t look at it that way. For me, it’s a matter of being able to enjoy my yard, and my kids being able to play in it!

Tags: gardening

Empty landscape island

So, I’ve never really had to do much more than mow a lawn anywhere I have lived. I did try to grow some tulips, along with some veggies last year. It didn’t really turn out. Except the tulips, which Kaiser promptly ate as they bloomed.

However, I’m now in this wonderful neighborhood, with a giant back yard, and so much potential! The last person who lived here paid a service to mow the front lawn, but didn’t give it much more love than that. So, spring took me by surprise, with an overgrown lawn, and pretty much nothing in the front part of the island.

Unless you count the weeds!

Rose Bush 1

There are 5 rose bushes along the fence, but they hadn’t been trimmed back in years. I have no knowledge of how to care for rosebushes, but after getting some advice from my neighbor, and verifying it online, I was able to gain enough courage to trim the bushes way back. I’ve done 4 of them so far, and there’s one left to go.

Rose Bush 2 (Untrimmed)

I’d love to know what type of roses each of these are, so that I can research a little more to see if any of them need special care. But, until then, I’ll just cross my fingers, and hope I see some blooms this year.

In the meantime, I need to figure out what I’m going to do with all of the trimmings. They would take weeks, if not months, to dispose of using my trash can. Currently, they are piled in the RV parking area behind the fence. And as you’ll see, there’s more to come!

I have considered letting Kaiser gnaw them into nothingness, and he’s been very eager to help. But, I think that will take even longer!

Cumberland Raspberries

The island in the front curves around to the side of the yard, and surrounds the rosebushes. There’s also another island right up next to the front porch, with weeds and a tree in  it. Years ago, someone laid down weed barrier in all of it. I managed to remove the old weed barrier (and the weeds!) in about half of the front portion of the island, and planted 2 Cumberland (black) raspberry bushes in it. I’m guessing that I probably won’t get to eat any raspberries from this bush this year, but I can live with that. I do need to get some supports for them. I also plan to put marigolds around the edges, in hopes that they will keep other bugs away. And since slugs are attracted to marigolds, I’ll put copper pennies (or maybe copper strips, if they don’t get too expensive) around the very edge.

On the far side, I’d like to put something else, preferably something flowery. I considered sunflowers, but I don’t think they would get enough sun. So, I’m still thinking about what I want there.

Getting the weed barrier up wasn’t too bad, in and of itself. The difficult part was that much of the weeds were difficult, and tedious to remove. I moved the bark mulch off to the side and just kind of kept moving it as I went. There’s a ton of dirt mixed in with the bark, but I think it will settle to the bottom, and it doesn’t look bad.

The other bad part was that there used to be a tree in there, which had been cut down. The trees roots were all over underneath, and I had to pull them out.

Now, I’m still working on the front, and I don’t want to minimize the work that needs to be done. However, it’s nothing in comparison to the back yard.

3' Tall Sticky Weeds

Yeah, that’s my back yard. There are a few places where I think there is grass. But, it hasn’t been cared for in years, according to my neighbors. So, it will be quite the chore to get rid of this stuff, and get grass to grow.

So far, the plan is to use the weedeater to cut it down, then rake it over into the pile of rose and tree trimmings that are sitting beside the house, for disposal at a later time.

After that, I’m going to use Scott’s Turf Builder with weed killer and fertilizer. And pray.

Once the jungle is gone, I’m going to check into whether the vinyl siding is dead, or if it can be put back up.

I think that’s enough work to keep me busy in the evenings and on weekends for quite a while. So, I probably won’t be planting a vegetable garden anywhere. But, if I can keep this part under control, a veggie garden is definitely doable for next year. As a bonus, I now have a ton of chores for the munchkins!

Tags: gardening

Pardon the geek out moment. I’ve been having problems with Internet Explorer 8 crashing a lot since I installed it last week. I finally put together that it was crashing repeatedly after I access a PDF that I’m testing from Visual Studio, in a web application. When I would launch in debugging mode, the crash would happen. Sometimes it actually closed IE8, but other times I just got a crash notification. Until I restart my laptop, the crash notification continues to happen. I would usually still be able to view the PDF that I was testing in IE8, and the rest of the crashes didn’t seem to fully coincide with the PDF opening.

I tried searching to find out if there was a known issue with IE8 and the .pdf format, but came up empty handed. So, I decided to see if there was an update at Adobe.com. Sure enough, I had Adobe Reader 8.1 (I think, it was 8.? anyway), and 9 is the current version. So, I downloaded the updated version, and began the install.

The downloader tool that Adobe uses told me that it had downloaded 98% of the file, but that it had unpacked 100% of it. The installer portion had begun, and it wanted to close the downloader tool. The downloader tool didn’t think it was done, so I had to allow it to save a file to my desktop, so I could close it and continue the installation.

Since that seemed odd to me, I started thinking, and remembered that the Google Updater was supposed to keep Adobe Reader up to date. I now remember seeing the symbol in my task tray indicating that Adobe was updating several times recently. I think Google was trying to update it, but couldn’t. Regardless, this is one more reason that I really despise PDFs. The software has always been unwieldy, and not very user friendly.

I am guessing that the problem here was that Adobe Reader 8.x isn’t IE8 compatible, and it needed that update. So far, everything is fine since getting Adobe Reader 9 to install. I don’t see a way to get Google to quit being responsible for updating Adobe, but I am also guessing that the problem Google had was the same as mine (that it couldn’t get past the downloader and on to the install), but just invisible to me. So, I’m going to leave Google Updater responsible for the installation, for now.

Tags: Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer

Dax and I drove up to Logan tonight for the PostSecret event at USU. We stopped first at KVNU studio to see Tyler and Jason. This part was a blast, until we got asked to detail what Dax and I fight about politically. I drew the line there. But maybe someday we’ll podcast it. Until then, my lips are sealed! We also got to meet Jess, whose recipe for tomato soup I adore! You can hear me on the show about 46:30 in.

Being at the PostSecret event was quite the experience. I’ve been a fan for a while, and Dax bought me the Secret Lives of Men and Women as a birthday gift a while back. So, I purchased Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary lives tonight. Frank Warren, the guy who runs this, gave a talk, which was more like an audio guide to the postcards. Some parts were funny, some were moving. The images below are all of postcards that the lawyers wouldn’t let him publish.

At the end, Frank invites the audience up to tell their secrets. No one was going up at first, and I debated in my head about whether to get up, or not. I finally did, and I was the first to tell my secret. I’ll be telling the whole story here on Saintless.com soon, but for tonight, I’ll just share the photos from the event. Check back over the next few days, if you want to know my secret.

I forced thousands of employees to take a pay cut… …so that I can get a pay raise

I still believe in God…but I’ve lost my religion.

Sometimes I imagine that one of the guys driving by is you & you’ve come to save me from killing myself in this town.

When I was in the mental ward, I would look out the window alot. Now since I’m out, I ride my bike past the window every day and SMILE! THERE IS HOPE!

What you did to me when I was 16 was wrong.
I never felt so alone in my life.
I never felt so much pain.
Today I am strong because of you.
Thank you.

15 years ago I gave up a boy for adoption. 1 year ago I found out his address in the next town. 4 months ago I drove past his house. Last night I took my 2 young children trick or treating to his house & he opened the door. I almost cried. But instead I went home.

I wish all secrets could be fun secrets. He he ha ha

Thank you! Every time I work up the nerve to swallow the pills someone does something to make me want to live and I’ve never said thank you for saving my life people have no idea how far kindness can go

It’s a boy! When we decided to keep you, your life wasn’t the only one saved.

I tell myself that one day after our spouses die & we’re like 80… We’ll reunite on a talk show and live happily ever after

I’ve always wanted my life to look like a picture frame insert

Tags: PostSecret

Here are my favorite jokes from today across the web.

First up, of course, is Google. This one is a simple link on the main Google search page:

Introducing CADIE: a singular upgrade to your online life.

I do wish that Gmail Autopilot by CADIE were real, though. And next time you’re planning a family vacation, check out CADIE’s recommended places for humans. Make sure to check out Redmond, WA. Oh, and apparently, they’re pairing up with Alienware to produce a $100 laptop. The laptop has a built-in brain wave reading chip, with sensors that need to be applied onto the user’s skull via USB port.

If you have a gPhone, you can try out Google’s new brain seraching technology, only available via mobile. Any idea how long I’ve been begging for Google to index my brain? And I bet that pairs nicely with Ford’s new Android Car.

Apparently, there’s a new ball released in Australia called the gBall. Meanwhile, in Africa, Goog Town is opening.

ThinkGeek has a whole newsletter full, but I am loving the Unicorn Chaser drink. Don’t forget to watch the video.

Pirate Bay announced they’d sold out to Warner Bros.

The Invisible Shirt was amusing.

And because there aren’t enough Twitter rumors and jokes the rest of the year, here’s another. Make Magazine gives you the code to add 141 characters to Twitter.

Although I generally stay far away from Apps on Facebook, the “We’re Related” one has some goodies. @homerj79 and @TheDax, among others, reported Barack Obama confirming them as cousins. Ivonna Earnest discovered that her husband is her third cousin. I wonder who I’d find out I’m related to?!

One of my favorite tweets for the day, from @markie28:

Snow? Nice April Fool’s prank, Mother Nature. Jokes on you though, I’m using styrofoam cups all day long today. HA!

The Save IE 6 petition was truly horrifying.

Apparantly, Guardian is downsizing. From paper to Twitter:

A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper’s archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include “1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!”; “OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5×6e for more”; and “JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?”

Reddit.com’s site redesign is pretty good.

Expedia.com is offering $99 trips to Mars. And Hotels.com is offering lunar accomodations.

Woot.com had a Bag of Crap, but had changed the shipping price to $1,000,000.

So far from Microsoft, I’m finding the Automatic Mood Detector for Messenger. There’s also The String or the Cat: A New .NET Framework Library:

For years applications have been built that accept user input. Most user input starts out as a string. Strings are a universal representation of arbitrary data coming into a computer. However, most data does not remain as a string for very long. User input often ends up getting parsed or converted into another data type, such as an integer, Boolean value, or a date.

The concepts presented here are based on a thought experiment proposed by scientist Erwin Schrödinger. While an understanding of quantum physics will help to understand the new types and APIs, it is not required.

Some woman somewhere is pretending that she has absolutely no sexual attraction to Neil Gaiman. Which is just one of the most blatant untruths ever, because that’s just not possible.

Whole Foods is selling organic air for $6.99 for .02 oz.

GreenFeet.com has such offerings as a solar powered microwave, a tree hugging jacket, and a belly button lint kit. Along with a coupon for free shipping, which looks to be real.

Qualcomm has some interesting “creatures” helping out with wireless networks, including the crocodeagle and the sharkfalcon.

I’ll update this in a few hours with the rest of what I find. If I’m missing any good ones, please let me know in the comments!

Update: Google Chrome now comes in 3D.

HowStuffWorks explains Rechargeable Gum and Permanent Kittens.

Toshiba is releasing the PetBook for your dog, and apparently it’s slobber resistant.

And apparently, Neil Gaiman is being considered for sainthood.

For a more local flavor, check out KVNU’s announcement that they’re being syndicated. Or JM Bell’s list of favorite pranks, including getting married.

Warner Bros. announced a new sequel to the Matrix series.

NIN released a new album, Strobe Light, which you just really have to read about. Just make sure you scroll down a tiny bit, so you don’t have a seizure.

Ok, that’s it for now. More in a bit.

Update 2: Fox cancels Joss Whedon.

Ok, that’s all, folks. I didn’t find any other good ones, and it’s time to head up to Logan for PostSecret.

Tags: April Fools

So, I’m the first to admit that tackling finances gives me the hives. I’ve come a long way, though. It used to give me panic attacks. Maybe in a few years I’ll get so far as to become a miser with money, and start saving it all.

I’ve often paid a few extra on my Jeep payment in the few years I’ve had it. When I do this, it’s reflected in the amount due on my future payments. For example, if I pay $100 extra on my payment, the following month, the monthly payment is lowered by $100. And that rolls over, so I could pay $50 extra two months in a row, and the 3rd month, the payment is lower by $100. So when things like Christmas come around, I take advantage of that lower payment option.

The loan matures in August of 2010, so I have 17 more payments. I was curious how much sooner I could own my Jeep by paying extra, so I found this auto loan calculator, and played around with it. I started out using current numbers – the outstanding principle balance, and 17 months remaining, etc. It came up with a number very close to my actual payment. So, I checked to see what 30 extra dollars per month would get me, since that’s what I usually tack onto my payments. The would get my title to me a whopping month earlier, and save me about $60 in interest.

Now, I know that this far into the game, the amount of interest I’m paying pales in comparison to what I was paying at the beginning of my loan. But, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot.

So, then I wondered how I could own the Jeep by this time next year. I started adding on extra payments and figured out that adding $140 per month at this point would shave 5 months off the loan, along with about $130. I’m not sure that the amount of interest it would save gets me excited to pay extra. But owning it by this month next year sure does.

Then I wondered what would have happened if I’d stuck to the extra $30 payment from the time I got the loan. That amount would mean I’d own the Jeep in February of 2010, 6 months ahead of schedule, and would have saved me about $1,000.

Then I got ambitious, and calculated what $100 extra per month in payments would be. Turns out, that amount would mean that the bank would have the title in the mail to me as we speak. And I would have saved around $2,500 in interest.

At this point, I’ll probably stick to my usual method of rounding my payment up to the nearest hundred, because I’m not seeing a ton of benefit to doing otherwise, although I might throw even more at it just so I can own it sooner. But, if and when I get a new Jeep, I’m going to come back to this calculator, to find out what paying extra on it would do for me, and figure that in when deciding how much payment I want to take on for it.

Anyone with an autoloan would benefit greatly by plopping some figures into this calculator.

Tags: finances

Eartha Kitt was an amazing woman and performer. I just found out that she passed away yesterday, Christmas Day, through One Utah. Miss Kitt was known for her role as Catwoman, as well as the above song, Santa Baby. Her story is amazing.

All of the reports are saying she passed away yesterday, so I’m assuming that her web site simply has a typo, where it lists Dec 26.

Her song “I Want To Be Evil” has been a personal favorite of mine, one of the only songs that touches me profoundly every time I hear it. I listen to it almost daily. At a recent party I held, I made everyone watch the old (above) and a new version of “Santa Baby”, after listening to “I Want To Be Evil” and even dancing and singing to that song. After that party, I thought about taking a vacation to see her in one of her 2009 performances, but I guess I have missed that opportunity.

I’ll always be a fan. Rest in peace, Miss Kitt.

Tags: Eartha Kitt

I’ve always hated dealing with Qwest. It should be illegal for them to call it “Customer Service” when you call in.

Last month I ordered DSL at my new place. Got it hooked up and running smoothly. Yay! No interaction with them other than the order I placed online.

Last week, I got a phone call from them about burying a phone line, and when I tried to return the call, I never made it to a live person, and kind of forgot about it.

Yesterday morning, I awoke to knocking at the front door. I quickly dressed and went to see who the HELL was knocking on my door that early. Turned out to be the Qwest guys wanting to crack a hole in the concrete in order to bury the phone line.

Side note: At Thanksgiving, I had one of the guys check for me, and they told me that cable strung across my fence to the house was the phone line.

So, I tried to get them to tell me why they needed to ruin the concrete for this. The guy wasn’t so good at the communication aspect of things. He kept looking to his partner and mumbling when I’d ask a question and then sort-of answering. He was wanting to drill a “small” hole in the concrete RV pad in the back yard in order to get the phone line to the box on the east side of the house. The line apparently comes in from the northwest corner of the yard. I wasn’t understanding what he wanted (even with the cup of coffee I’d thankfully set to brew the night before), and he kept mentioning that it was an “option”. After much pulling of teeth, he told me about another option where they’d cut the concrete all the way up to the house. I never did get an explanation from him about what the difference was, other than the first option included a round hole in the pad.

I finally told him that I’m renting and I couldn’t give them the go-ahead to do this, so he went away, promising to return later, after I talked to Laurell about it.

That evening, I took a look, and realized that if they ran the line directly to the northeast side of the house, they didn’t need to do anything to concrete, and oculd run it under the siding, like the other cables have been.

So, I get a phone call today from Sorensen Construction, from a very sweet sounding girl, about hacking up my concrete.

I returned her call, and left her a voicemail.

I then called Qwest. The worst of the nightmare was beginning. The very unknowledgeable girl answering the phone tried hard to be helpful, nice and polite. She accomplished the latter two, though I was on hold for most of the 27 minute phone call. I was calling to find out how much they were going to charge me for this monstrosity being proposed. She kept looking things up, and remained confused about whether I had, or wanted, an actual phone line (I don’t), and sometimes was able to see that there was a construction order, and other times told me it wasn’t there. She called another department twice, or two departments once each, I’m not sure which, to tell me what was going on. She seemed to be forgetting that I just wanted to know how much this was going to cost me.

Finally she comes back and tells me it won’t cost anything, and gave me a number for some other department, who could give me details about the construction aspect.

I called the number, where I got a message that it had been changed, and given another number. I called the new number, which appeared to be either an internal number or one meant for mega corporations who have whole departments just to deal with Qwest, and know their terminology. At this point, I considered calling my ex-boyfriend, who works for Qwest and is over the department whose phone number I had just called. I recognized some of the keywords from him, and knew that I didn’t belong at this number. I didn’t call the ex, though. I just gave up on Qwest and decided to call the sweetie at Sorensen.

So, I call Sorensen, and ask the girl if she’s just calling for permission to drill or if she actually knows what’s happening with the drilling. She seems informed. So, I explain the alternative I’d come up with. She tells me that Qwest refuses to let them run the line along the house for more than 20′, so that’s not an option. She explains that there are two options.

Option 1: They use a machine to tunnel under the concrete and drill a small hole to run the cable up through, to reach the house. They then fill the hole in with concrete.

Option 2: They widen the existing gap where the concrete slabs meet, from 1/4″ to 1/2″, lay the line there, and then seal it.

I then call Laurell, the owner, and present the problem to her. She wasn’t any happier than I was about it, but finally decided on Option 1, and I relayed that message to Sorensen.

Qwest “Customer Service”, my ass.

Every year people all over the U.S. spend the day after Thanksgiving getting ready for the holiday season by shopping for gifts. The Community Coat Exchange was created as a project for the same day that focuses on concerns about the ecological and psychological consequences of our consumer culture and the impact of our consumerism on society.

The Community Coat Exchange is a collection and distribution of winter coats and other clothing items. The event is held between 10 AM and 3PM the day after Thanksgiving.

If you need a coat, come get one. If you want to exchange a coat, bring the coat you want to donate and take one in exchange. If you have a donation of coats, we know people who can use them.

Left over coats are donated to the Crossroads Urban Center Thrift Store, a project of the Crossroads Urban Center which advocates for low income and homeless people.

Please contact us to donate coats, volunteer or if your organization is willing to support this annual event as a partner.

If you need a coat, come get one. If have have a coat, we know someone who can use it.

More Info:

3rd Annual Community Coat Exchange
Friday, November 28; 10:00am to 3:00pm
Library Square Plaza
210 E 400 S
Salt Lake City
801-631-2998
info@coatexchange.org
www.coatexchange.org

Update: I’m printing this flyer out, and handing it out to my neighbors. I’m also letting them know I can drop coats off for them, if they want.